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The Station nightclub fire occurred on the evening of February 20, 2003, at The Station, a nightclub and hard rock music venue in West Warwick, Rhode Island, United States, killing 100 people and injuring 230. During a concert by the rock band Great White, a pyrotechnic display ignited flammable acoustic foam in the walls and ceilings surrounding the stage. Within six minutes, the entire building was engulfed in flames. The fire was the deadliest fireworks accident in U.S. history and the fourth-deadliest nightclub fire in U.S. history. It was also the second-deadliest nightclub fire in New England, behind the 1942 Cocoanut Grove fire. After the fire, multiple civil and criminal cases were filed. Daniel Biechele, the tour manager for Great White who had ignited the pyrotechnics, pled guilty to 100 counts of involuntary manslaughter in 2006 and was sentenced to fifteen years in prison with four to serve. Biechele was released from prison in 2008 after some families of the victims expressed their support for his parole. Jeffrey and Michael Derderian, the owners of the Station, pleaded no contest and avoided a trial: Michael received the same sentence as Biechele and was released from prison in 2009, while Jeffrey received a sentence of 500 hours of community service. Legal action against several parties, including Great White, was resolved with monetary settlements by 2008. Station Fire Memorial Park, a permanent memorial to the fire victims, was opened in May 2017 at the site where the Station once stood. Background The Station The Station was a nightclub that was located on the corner of Cowesett Avenue and Kulas Road in West Warwick, Rhode Island. The building that would become The Station was built in 1946 and was originally used as a gin mill. Before being converted into a nightclub and concert venue, the Station building had been used as a restaurant and tavern. A fire had previously occurred at the building in 1972 while it was used as a restaurant called Julio's. No occupants were in the building during the 1972 fire, but the interior was significantly damaged. Another restaurant opened in the building in 1974. In 1985, it was converted to a pub, which closed sometime in the late 1980s, and a nightclub was opened in 1991. The nightclub was purchased by brothers Michael and Jeffrey Derderian in March 2000. In the months before the fire, the building had been inspected twice by West Warwick fire marshal Denis Larocque. The club was cited for nine minor code violations during the first inspection in November 2002 but was not cited for the flammable polyurethane foam the venue used for soundproofing, which was against code. The follow-up inspection in December 2002 also did not cite the foam, and the inspector gave the building an "All OK" rating on his inspection form. Larocque later told the Rhode Island State Police that he had not spotted the polyurethane foam during the November 2002 inspection because he was upset after finding an illegal inward swinging door that he had previously asked to be removed from the building. Before the fire, the Station often hosted concerts by 1980s hard rock groups and tribute bands. Local bands that had played at the Station before the fire had used pyrotechnics during their concerts without incident, including a Kiss tribute band that had set off fireballs during their show in August 2002. Great White Great White, the headlining band of the February 20 concert, had risen to fame as part of the glam metal scene of the late 1980s and early 1990s. They were best known for their 1989 cover of Ian Hunter's "Once Bitten, Twice Shy", which reached the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100. At the time of their performance at the Station, Great White had two of its original members in its lineup: Lead singer Jack Russell and guitarist Mark Kendall. For the 2003 tour, the band was billed as "Jack Russell's Great White". Kendall, who had co-founded the band with Russell in 1977, had rejoined Russell's version of the group in 2002. The rest of the lineup included guitarist Ty Longley, who died in the fire, bass guitarist David Filice, and drummer Eric Powers. Great White's popularity had waned in the decade before the Station fire, and they had been performing on a touring circuit of small clubs with capacities of up to 500 people. Although the band was officially known as Jack Russell's Great White at the time, and their tour was initially named after Russell's 2002 solo album For You, they were billed by the Station as simply Great White. In February 2003, Great White was on an eighteen-date concert tour, and they had been using a pyrotechnic display during their performances, which some club owners had denied them permission to use, citing safety concerns. Dominic Santana, the owner of The Stone Pony in Asbury Park, New Jersey, told reporters that Great White had used pyrotechnics during their February 14, 2003 performance at the venue without his permission, and their contract and rider did not mention pyrotechnics displays. In the aftermath of the fire, Great White and the owners of the Station disputed whether the band were allowed to use the pyrotechnic display during their concert. Great White had two opening acts for the February 20 concert: Trip, a group from Vancouver, Washington, and Fathead, a local Rhode Island band. All the members of Trip escaped the Station without injury, but two members of Fathead, cousins Keith and Steven Mancini, along with Steven’s wife Andrea, died in the fire. The concert was emceed by Michael Gonsalves, a disc jockey for Providence rock radio station WHJY who was also known as "Doctor Metal". Gonsalves was the host of the WHJY program The Metal Zone, at the time the longest-running heavy metal radio program in the United States. Fire Ignition Great White started their performance at 11:07 p.m. on February 20. A total of 462 people were in attendance, even though the club's maximum licensed capacity was cited as 404. The fire started shortly after Great White began performing their opening song, "Desert Moon". During the performance, pyrotechnics set off by tour manager Daniel Biechele ignited the flammable acoustic foam on both sides and the top center of the drummer's alcove at the back of the stage. The pyrotechnics were gerbs, cylindrical devices that produce a controlled spray of sparks. Biechele used four gerbs that were set to spray sparks 15 feet (4.6 m) for fifteen seconds. Two gerbs were at 45-degree angles, with the middle two pointing straight up. The flanking gerbs became the principal cause of the fire. Sparks from the gerbs ignited the insulation foam, and flames were visible on the wall above the stage within nine seconds of their ignition. The flames were initially thought to be part of the act; only as the fire reached the ceiling and smoke began to bank down did people realize it was uncontrolled. Twenty seconds after the pyrotechnics ended, the band stopped playing, and l.... Discover the Tom Derderian popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Tom Derderian books.